After Bungie and Activision announced an exclusive quest in the upcoming Taken King expansion would be tied to buying Red Bull products, Dying Light developer Techland offered a little satire of the whole situation.

The developer wrote took a jab at the marketing campaign for Destiny with the following message on Twitter:

Gearbox Software is no longer a party to the lawsuit against Sega for Aliens: Colonial Marines, according to documents obtained by Polygon. Further, the court will not certify the case as a class action lawsuit, leaving it with only the two main plaintiffs who filed the original lawsuit two years ago.

While this particular deal was apparently finalized prior to Microsoft acquiring Minecraft and its maker Mojang, it does nonetheless show you that Microsoft may have some big ideas for the ultra popular sandbox building game.

According to this Nikkei report (by way of Eurogamer) Sony will not renew its sponsorship deal with FIFA over concerns of corruption in the international soccer governing body. Sony has sponsored a number of major events for FIFA through the years including the World Cup, but the company has decided to bow out when its contract expires on December 31 of this year.

Earlier this year GameStop introduced its own credit card - the PowerUp Reward Credit Card, allowing customers to buy various game-related items on credit and earning itself a tidy profit in the process because the card has an APR of 26.99 percent (ouch).

Some McDonald's restaurants in China have been redesigned with a World of Warcraft theme to promote Blizzard's popular MMO to gamers in the country. Kotaku has plenty of photos of McDonald's establishments in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou made over with paintings, character art, banners for the Hoarde and the Alliance, and gigantic statues from WoW.

An interesting reprint of a blog post by Zachary Strebeck over at Gamasutra attempts to explain whether someone can get away with using someone else's trademark in marketing their own games. For example, would it be legal to say that your game is "like DOOM with a bit of Oblivion and Borderlands mixed in?"

There was a popular theory floated around the ether of the Internet that after Amazon bought the game video streaming service Twitch for close to $1 billion dollars it would start shoehorning its ads into video streams and adding "buy now" buttons everywhere. But according to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, the company is not interested in selling games directly to consumers. Twitch's strength, he notes, is in promoting games natively with content like YouTube personalities have found success in doing.

Destiny's Planet View is pretty fascinating. It looks and feels a lot like Google's Street View, in case you hadn't noticed, because it is powered by the same technology. Located at www.destinyplanetview.com, Destiny Planet View lets players explore the universe of Bungie's upcoming action game, offering lore and other important information for each planet - all while the game's soundtrack plays in the background.

A new survey released by Gamasutra reveals a disturbing fact about YouTube gaming personalities; of those who participated in a survey, around 26 percent admitted that they had taken money directly or indirectly to promote a game or brand from a publisher.

Did someone order something with extra cheese at Denny's, allegedly "America's Diner?" Well whether you did or not a new deal with Atari to transform some of its select classic Atari 2600 games is some of the cheesiest marketing we've seen.

The deal sees Denny's app offer three classic Atari games reimagined with new titles and food items as themes. There's Hasteroids (Asteroids), Centiup (Centipede), and Take-Out (Breakout). The games are free, and available now in both iOS and Android app stores via the Denny's app.

Android-based micro console maker Ouya has launched an All Access Pass scheme this week, offering those who signed up access to 800+ games for a 12 month period. The "one-time buy" plan costs $59.99. The offer is apparently a big success because it was limited in nature and has already sold out. According to Cnet, the Ouya All-Access Pass only applies to single transactions under $30, including most complete games and DLC, but excludes micro-transactions and similar revenue streams.

In a bid to promote its 2DS - the no-frills version of its 3DS hand-held gaming system, Nintendo will kick off a multi-city tour allowing gamers in select areas try out the device and the newest games for it. Games scheduled for the tour include Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Yoshi’s New Island, Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Super Mario 3D Land, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and Mario Kart 7.

Bulldog Licensing has inked a sub-agency deal with Game of 2 Halves for Deep Silver's Saints Row and Dead Island. The deal, which covers Canada and the United States, allows the company to further license the properties for toys, action figures, collectables, posters, electronics and accessories deals.

HBO will advertise the next season of its hit fantasy series Game of Thrones in Riot Games' popular MOBA game, League of Legends. According to [A]ListDayily interview with Dustin Beck, Vice president of eSports and merchandising at Riot Games, Riot Games and HBO will team up to create a three-week long campaign leading up to the premiere of the fourth season of the show.

The marketing campaign could include a mash-up trailer and website take-overs.

Wargaming has jumped into the digital media publishing biz, with the launch of a new interactive publication that highlights its line-up of games and related topics like military history. The magazine is called "Let's Battle" and is available for free on Google Play for Android devices and the Apple App store for iOS devices.

A NeoGAF thread reveals a bold initiative from Microsoft whereby they'll knock $100 off the price of the Xbox One for any consumer willing to turn in their old PS3 system. The ad, which is reportedly from the official Microsoft Store, lists a number of terms and conditions related to the trade-in deal:

While it's fun watching "Clueless Gamer," Conan O’Brien's regular segment where he plays video games and makes witty comments for his show on TBS, apparently it can cost a developer or publisher a lot of money to get air time on the show. While not everyone pays to be on the show, about a quarter of the products featured on the segment have to pay some sort of fee. The show does not disclose this fact either.

While Microsoft (through a marketing partnership with Machinima) and Electronic Arts (through its "Ronku" marketing program) paying content creators to promote its games to followers on YouTube without disclosing the relationship may be unethical, neither company is breaking the law and it is unlikely that anyone involved could be fined for not disclosing a relationship according to what a Federal Trade Commission spokesperson tells Polygon.

Electronic Arts has signed a long-term agreement with Professional Game Match Officials Limited that will run until the 2018/19 season and see match officials sporting EA Sports-branded gear, according to an MCV report.

According to a report on Ars Technica, Microsoft and Machinima colluded to get Machinima YouTube content creators to say nice things about the Xbox One for money and required that they not disclose the financial relationship to viewers.

When president Barack Obama purchased a copy of Just Dance 3 in December 2011, he was doing more than just buying a game for his daughters - he was emphasizing the fact the game franchise is universal, according to Ubisoft managing director Xavier Poix. Speaking to IGN about the franchise, Poix reminisced about the best endorsement of a game a company can get - one from a fairly popular sitting U.S. president.

While Red Bull is the number one brand on YouTube (mostly because it sponsors so many interesting sporting and gaming events worldwide), "PlayStation" is also pretty popular, according to data collected by Statista and Mashable.

New research from Michigan State University examined advergames and found that they have a tendency to promote foods that are unhealthy - full of fat, sugar, and sodium. Researchers concluded that these games meant to promote products and brands often promote unhealthy lifestyle choices for children too.

An Advertising Age report highlighted by NeoGAF unearthed over the weekend has thrown some gasoline on a story that surfaced earlier this year about how Kinect could be used to improve the monetization of Xbox One customers.

In a highly competitive promotion against Apple's favorite tablet, Microsoft has decided to give consumers willing to turn in that old iPad a couple of hundred bucks in their store - presumably to spend on their Surface tablet... The promotion, which runs until October 27, allows people to trade in their "gently used" iPad 2, 3, or 4 tablets to receive a minimum of a $200 gift card to the Microsoft Store.

Tilting Point has hired Tom Bass as its new Vice President of Marketing. Prior to joining the company Bass worked for video game publisher 2K Games, where he held the positions of Director of Marketing and Senior Director of Social Media and Consumer Relations. He worked there for the last eight years. According to Tilting Point, Bass will lead a team focused on mobile game marketing for the company’s portfolio of games.

While many indie developers are struggling to find a way to deal with the problem of piracy, there is yet another equally big problem for them, obscurity. As big a problem as piracy is, it does have one thing going for it that obscurity doesn't, people actually playing the game. It is this lack of people playing that has resulted in Gun Monkeys creator Size Five Games to take a novel approach to combating it.

Today Microsoft launched a new contest that encourages Xbox One fans to create and submit a one minute video about the Xbox One games they like. The creators of the chosen videos will win a series of Xbox One related goodies when the system launches this fall including an Xbox One system, a one-year Xbox Live Gold subscription, an undetermined amount of free Xbox One launch titles, and the opportunity to work with Microsoft's Upload team in the future.

Connecticut Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden) has sent a letter to top executives at the ESA, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Valve urging them to end the practice of licensing and marketing products from gun manufacturers for video games. The letter was addressed to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick, Valve front man Gabe Newell, and Entertainment Software Association CEO Michael Gallagher.

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm